Board approves campus-wide safety initiative

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By Paul Mayne
Thursday, May 8, 2008
All members of the campus community have a role to play in the prevention of violence and promotion of safety on campus, according to the Safety Campus Community Initiative passed last week by the Board of Governors.
 
Featuring 50 security programs such as hazardous materials, foot patrol and emergency blue phones, the new plan is open to additional initiatives designed to help the community identify, report and prevent violence, and respond in a crisis. Campus Community Police Service Director Elgin Austin says the goal is to address safety concerns at an early stage and develop awareness of the many reporting and response systems in place at the university.
 
“We want to create not only a safe campus, but a respectful workplace,” says Austen. “We can be prepared for an emergency, but the idea is to prevent them from happening in the first place.”

Budget passes

While the 2008-09 operating budget shows more modest growth than in past years, the capital budget will see strong spending on new construction and renovation.
 
More than half the $122.6 million capital budget for the coming year will go towards new construction, including the $15-million Student Services Building and $13.9-million Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Pavilion (Green Building - Engineering). A number of facilities will receive major renovations including $7.1 million in the Biological and Geological Building; $5.9 million for Physics and Astronomy Building and $5 million for the Talbot Theatre.

Labatt Lauded

Western Chancellor Arthur Labatt, in attendance at the May 1 Board of Governors meeting, was thanked for his recent $10-million donation to the Faculty of Health Sciences, which will create the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing.
 
Labatt’s term as chancellor is also drawing to a close with the June convocation being the last over which he will preside.
 
“It’s been a wonderful experience for me at Western and I can almost visualize all the students who have crossed the stage,” says Labatt, of his four-year term as chancellor.
 
“I am impressed with all the faculties, so it was a hard choice for me. But Health Sciences is one we (with wife Sonia) started to support; it’s one of the fastest growing areas and as everyone knows we need more nurses. Sonia and I are happy to be in a position to do this.”

Gazette fees approved

The anger over last year’s spoof issue of the student Gazette was nowhere to be found as the board approved collection of the $9.30 per student fee by the USC for operation of the newspaper. Board members determined the staff had complied with their Journalistic Code of Ethics.
 
The need for the board to okay the fee follows last year’s April Fool’s issue when an attempt at satire brought sharp criticism and broad rebuke for its use of rape imagery. Under intense pressure, the Gazette and its owner, the USC, apologized and promised to create a code of ethics and management structure that was more responsive to students.
 
Board members felt the paper’s new advisory board, which includes a FIMS faculty member and four individuals whose occupations are in the media industry, did an effective job in providing education, training and advice throughout the year.

Professorship Terminated

Funds for the C.G. Drake Professorship in Neurosurgery have not been used to support a professorship for many years and, with consultation with the donor, the capital and income fund will be redirected to create the C.G. Drake Endowment Fund in Neurointervention.
 
The money will be used to support medical fellows who are neurosurgeons as they learn the art of vascular neurosurgery and catheter radiology. Funds may also be used to support research conducted by these fellows in the areas related to Charles Drake’s research interests, specifically the aneurysms and vascular malformations of the brain.

Creating a school

Approval was granted to create a School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies commencing July 1, replacing the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
 
The university has a goal of doubling over a decade the number of PhD students, and significantly increasing Master’s-level students by 2010-11.
 
The decision creates a new administrative and leadership structure that places more responsibility for graduate programs in the hands of host faculties.  
 

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